Todd Field

Todd Field
Todd Field at the 79th Academy Awards ceremony on February 25, 2007.
Born	William Todd Field February 24, 1964 (1964-02-24) (age 45) Pomona, California, U.S.
Occupation	Film Director Producer Screenwriter
Years active	1985 – present
Spouse(s)	Serena Rathbun (1986 – )

William Todd Field, known professionally as Todd Field (born February 24, 1964) is an American actor, producer, composer, screenwriter, and three time Academy Award-nominated writer/director.

Biography

Background and personal life

Field was born in Pomona, California, where his family ran a poultry farm.^[1] When Field turned two his family moved to Portland, Oregon, where his father went to work as a salesman, and his mother became a school librarian.^[2] He graduated from Centennial High School on Portland's eastside a budding jazz musician and briefly attending Southern Oregon State College (now Southern Oregon University) in Ashland on a music scholarship, but left after his freshman year favoring a move to New York to study acting. Once there, he began performing with the Ark Theatre Company as both an actor and musician.^[3]

Field received his Master of Fine Arts from the AFI Conservatory.^[4]

He married Serena Rathbun on July 25, 1986; they have four children, two of whom have appeared in Field's films.

Career

Field began making motion pictures in 1985 when he was cast by Woody Allen in Radio Days. He went on to work with some of America's greatest film makers including Stanley Kubrick, Victor Nuñez, and Carl Franklin. It was Franklin and Nunez (both AFI alumnists) who encouraged Field to enroll as a Directing Fellow at the AFI, which he did in the fall of 1992. Since that time he has received the Franklin J. Schaffner Fellow Award from the AFI, the Satyajit Ray Award from the British Film Institute, a Jury Prize from the Sundance Film Festival, and his short films have been exhibited at various venues overseas and domestically at the Museum of Modern Art. To date, unadjusted box office receipts for the films in which Field has participated exceed a billion dollars worldwide.^[5]

In the Bedroom

Tom Wilkinson & Sissy Spacek in Field's In the Bedroom. (2001)

Field became one of Hollywood's hottest new writer/directors with the release of In the Bedroom, a film based on the short story Killings by author Andre Dubus. (Both Kubrick and Dubus were among Field's mentors; tragically, both died right before the production of In the Bedroom.) In the Bedroom was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor (Tom Wilkinson, his first nomination), Best Actress (Sissy Spacek, her sixth nomination), Supporting Actress (Marisa Tomei, her second nomination), and Best Screenplay (Adapted). The film was made in a small town in New England in which Field resides– the house where he, his wife (Serena Rathbun), and their four children live was even used as the setting for one sequence. Rathbun and Sissy Spacek did a portion of the set designing and Field handled the camera himself on many of the shots. The result, critics said, was stunning:

David Ansen – Newsweek

"Todd Field exhibits a mastery of his craft many filmmakers never acquire in a lifetime. With one film he’s guaranteed his future as a director. He has the magnificent obsession of the natural-born filmmaker."^[6][7]

Neil Norman – The Evening Standard

"It is apparent that Field has not only studied the masters of cinematic understatement, such as Ozu and Bergman, but that he fully understands their processes. Consequently, this is a film that lives beyond its two hours. Field's achievement is such a perfectly consummated marriage of intent and execution that he need never make another movie. I would not be alone, I think, in hoping he will make many more."^[8]

Stephen Holden – The New York Times

"It feels almost miraculous, a shimmering piece of art. In the Bedroom belongs to a handful of films that stand the best chance of one day being regarded as classics."^[9]

For his work on In the Bedroom, Field was named Director of the Year by the National Board of Review, and his script was awarded Best Original Screenplay. The film went on to win Best Picture of the Year by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the New York Film Critics Circle awarded Best First Film to Field. In the Bedroom received six AFI nominations including Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay, three Golden Globe nominations, and five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actress, and two individually for Field both as Screenwriter and Producer. The American Film Institute honored Field with the Franklin Schaffner Alumni Medal. With the exception of the AFI Life Achievement Award, the Schaffner Award is the highest honor an individual can achieve.

Little Children

Winslet & Wilson in
Field's Little Children

Field followed In the Bedroom with Little Children, which was nominated for three Academy Awards including two for his actors: Kate Winslet (her fifth nomination, and with it a record for the youngest actor to be nominated for five Academy Awards) and Jackie Earle Haley (his first nomination, and first leading role in over fifteen years). After having written, directed and produced just two feature films, Field had garnered five Academy Award nominations for his actors, and three for himself, personally.

The film, based on the novel of the same name by Tom Perrotta, premiered at the 2006 New York Film Festival to similar accolades:

A. O. Scott – The New York Times

"Superb! Mr. Field proves to be among the most literary of American filmmakers. In too many recent movies intelligence is woefully undervalued, and it is this quality — even more than its considerable beauty — that distinguishes “Little Children” from its peers. A movie that is challenging, accessible, and hard to stop thinking about.."^[11]

David Denby – The New Yorker

"One of the Best Films of the Year. Extraordinary. A Beautifully Crafted Piece of Work. The picture moves swiftly and surely with uncanny precision. Field works with such fluid grace and perception that the movie goes right to the top."^[12]

Tom Perrotta and Field working on the script for Little Children. (2005)

Peter Travers – Rolling Stone

"Field shows his mastery. He performs a high-wire act that balances hard truth and hard-won tenderness. The film rides its dramatic challenges in perfect pitch. Most movies fade from memory. This one sticks. The film pulls you in like a magnetic force."^[13]

Little Children was named Best Picture of the Year by the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, received three Golden Globe nominations including Best Picture of the Year, went on to be nominated for two Screen Actors Guild awards, the Writer’s Guild Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and three Academy Awards, including one for Field that he shared with Tom Perrotta for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Future Work

According to the Los Angeles Times, Field is currently in the process of adapting a film version of Cormac McCarthy's novel Blood Meridian.^[15]

Filmography

Writer/Director/Producer

Feature Films

Field attending 79th Annual Academy Award nominee Luncheon. (2007)

Short Films